Top five Indians who will miss out on the Tokyo Olympics

A number of famous stars will not be in action in the upcoming quadrennial event.

While it is every athlete's dream to participate in the Olympic Games, only a handful of them is able to do so. Some of them come into the focus just by qualifying, while bigger names hope to have a shot at glory in the world's greatest sporting spectacle.

The Indian contingent for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics contains several medal hopefuls. However, there have been some household names who have failed to qualify this time around.

Here are the most renowned names from across the Indian sporting fraternity who will not be a part of the Tokyo Olympics:

5. Dipa Karmakar

Dipa Karmakar rose to prominence after a spectacular performance at Rio 2016. The gymnast finished in the fourth position, narrowly missing out on a podium place. She also became just the fifth woman in the history of Gymnastics to successfully perform the Produnova vault, which is also known as the 'Vault of Death'. Owing to this, Karmakar became an overnight sensation and went onto receive the prestigious Padma Shri award.

She was expected to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics and achieve a podium finish. However, she was unable to secure a berth at the event. Karmakar's failure to qualify is mainly due to two major factors - constant injuries and the ongoing pandemic. Immediately after Rio 2016, she injured her knee and underwent surgery. The 27-year-old sustained another injury on the same knee during the 2018 Asian Games.

Gymnasts willing to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics had to collect points by competing in a total of eight FIG World Cup Series events. The aggregate points collected were taken into account for qualification. Participating in only two events due to injury while several others became cancelled meant she would fall short of points. The other way to qualify was through the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships, however, it was called off due to the pandemic.

4. Kidambi Srikanth

Badminton has been one of the most affected sport in India due to the pandemic. It is a pity that one of India's brightest stars in the sport, Kidambi Srikanth, will not be in action in the Tokyo Olympics. The cancellation of big-point tournaments in India, Malaysia and Singapore were too costly in the end.

Srikanth is known widely for his slow stars and his leisurely pace in building momentum has been a major issue. For a former World No. 1 and arguably India’s best, he is yet to grab a medal at the World Championships or even the Asian Championships. Incapable of resenting his peers or envying their success, Srikanth has calmly watched B. Sai Praneeth leap ahead – grab a  BWF World Championships Bronze and qualify for the Olympics. He finally stirred at the start of 2021 and wanted desperately to play in Thailand despite the isolation rules.

However, five first-round defeats, two quarters and one semifinal in the last stretch of qualification were never going to be enough. The 28-year-old can now only rue the missed chances which will start haunting him once the Tokyo Olympics begins.

3. Chinki Yadav

The World No. 1 in the 25m Pistol Women category, Chinki Yadav is another star who will not be among the travelling Indian contingent to Tokyo. However, unlike others on this list, it is not that the shooter had failed in qualification.

At the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha, Yadav had secured an Olympic quota for India with a career-best qualification score of 588. Despite her great achievements, her omission from the shooting squad is a mystery.

Former Indian shooter Jaspal Rana had stated that justice has been denied to her and he has serious objections to the selections of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). Due to her shocking omission, Yadav admitted that she went through a lot of mental agony. She had secured a Gold Medal at the ISSF World Cup earlier in 2021 in New Delhi, beating Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker before the shocking revelation.

Despite shooting being India's biggest medal hope, the absence of the world's top shooter could be a fatal mistake. The 23-year-old's Olympic dreams came to a standstill even before it began and without any fault of her.

2. Shiva Thapa

Two-time Olympian Shiva Thapa will be a major miss for India at the Tokyo Olympics. The boxer will not be in action in the 63kg category event, with emerging talent Manish Kaushik grabbing that spot. Thapa has endured a couple of topsy-turvy years. However, towards the end of May, Thapa reminded everyone of his abilities.

He had a fine outing at the Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai. The 27-year-old beat Kuwait's Nader Obah and defending champion Bakhodor Usmanov of Tajikistan on the way to securing a Silver Medal in the continental meet. It was his second successive Silver and fifth medal overall. Hence, the boxer became one of only two men to win five medals in the history of the competition.

In London 2012, Thapa had become India's youngest boxer to participate at the Olympics. After almost a decade, it was expected that he would reach newer heights. Age is still on his side and he will already be looking ahead to the Paris Olympics. The hope is he can still fulfil his potential and live up to his reputation before time starts running out.

1. Saina Nehwal

One of India's biggest sporting icons, Saina Nehwal failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. A Bronze medalist at London 2012 and three-time Commonwealth Games Gold Medal winner's absence will be a massive disappointment. The former World No. 1 in women's singles had suffered a career-threatening knee injury at Rio 2016.

Nehwal was hoping to make amends and put up a good performance in Tokyo. However, the COVID-19 pandemic dashed her hopes as the cancellation of several tournaments turned out to be a major factor. Eventually, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) came to the conclusion that no further tournaments would be held in the qualifying window for the Olympics.

As per BWF Olympic qualifying rules, two shuttlers from the same country can qualify for a Badminton event only if both of them are ranked inside the top 16. As Nehwal was the second-highest ranked Indian player after P.V. Sindhu but was outside the top 16, she could not make the final cut.

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